TTC wants to spend $4.2-billion to improve subway, buy new buses and streetcars

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Toronto’s transit agency has unveiled its pitch for about $4.2 billion in new city spending over the next 10 years to improve the backbone of the city’s subway system and buy hundreds of vehicles, including a new batch of streetcars, to meet growing ridership demand.

The plan, which is being backed by Mayor John Tory, increases the 2020-29 transit capital plan to $11.9 billion, but will require additional funding from other levels of government. Among the shortfalls, Wednesday’s plan calls for nearly 1,600 new buses, 80 subway trains and 60 new streetcars but earmarks city money for only one-third of these vehicles.

Rick Leary, chief executive of the Toronto Transit Commission, said in an interview Wednesday that failing to fulfill this plan would cause the agency to “lose the reliability of the system and the confidence" of those riding it.

“This is the necessary requirement to provide good quality public transit in this city,” he said.

About a year ago, the TTC published a report detailing a $33-billion, 15-year capital backlog, money needed to keep the current system in a state of good repair and buy equipment to meet projected ridership growth. It would not fund any new transit lines. The agency warned then that failure to tackle this backlog could lead to the sort of terminal decline seen at some other transit providers.

Wednesday’s plan was unveiled amid increasing signs that the local transit agency is already struggling to cope with growing ridership and the age of some of its equipment. An incident earlier in the day served as a reminder of the extent to which Toronto relies on the TTC, and how badly the city is hobbled when something goes wrong.

The TTC had problems on the western side of its Bloor-Danforth line, with a train derailing on the way out of its overnight storage facility and shutting down that part of the subway for hours. With no redundancy built into the system for riders coming from the west end – beyond the small number who could make their way to the GO rail line – mobs of riders formed around shuttles buses that were unable to keep up.

While the specific cause of Wednesday’s problems continue to be analyzed, the state of the subway network is a growing concern. The new spending plan includes billions to improve capacity and reliability, including the full cost of 10 years of work on the two main subway lines to keep them in a state of good repair.

TTC chair Jaye Robinson noted that much of the work being proposed would not grab headlines, but was still important.

“A majority of the additional capital funds must be committed to the maintenance, repair, and improvement projects required to keep our subway running,” she said in a statement. “While it’s not glamorous, this work – replacing cables, repairing tunnels, rehabilitating tracks, and asbestos removal – is critical to the safe operation of our subway network.

Late in 2019, council approved a push by Mr. Tory to increase the so-called city building fund – a levy on the property tax – to help pay for transit and affordable housing.

The plan unveiled Wednesday would soak up the bulk of the money generated by the levy and would need to be approved by both the board of the TTC and by city council. With Mr. Tory’s support, that is likely a foregone conclusion.

“We must buy new subway trains, new buses, and new streetcars but we cannot make these purchases alone,” the mayor said in a statement, adding that he would be “working non-stop to negotiate funding” from the other levels of government.